Jose Mourinho Surprisingly Talks Up Mohamed Salah's Impact Ahead of Egypt's Clash With Russia
Jose Mourinho has turned into quite the Mohamed Salah admirer ever since the player turned out to be, well, pretty good.
Mourinho was the one who brought Salah to Chelsea during his time as manager at Stamford Bridge but could not accommodate the Egyptian in his squad and he was eventually loaned out - and later sold - after making just 19 appearances for the Blues.
The diminutive speedster has since returned to the Premier League to set the world alight at Liverpool, capturing the Golden Boot and PFA Players' Player of the year award in the wake of his prolific performances. However, an unfortunate clash with Real Madrid's Sergio Ramos early in the first half of this year's Champions League final saw him miss Egypt's World Cup opener last week.
Salah recovered quickly enough to face Russia in a must-win clash for The Pharaohs, starting in attack on Tuesday.
Mourinho, meanwhile, is on punditry duty at the tournament and had some choice words to let out regarding Liverpool's offensive supremo.
“Egypt has, I don’t want to say the fastest, but I have to say, one of the fastest players in the world," the Manchester United boss declared in quotes cited by the Liverpool Echo ahead of Egypt's showdown with Russia.
“With the ball, without the ball, he can dribble, he can attack spaces behind defenders. Because of this, I think Russia have to drop the block back.
“They have to react better when they lose the ball because they conceded a little bit against a very naïve team, a team without any physical power and Egypt can hurt them.”
